1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for receiving a desired function from a user in a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for inputting a function of a mobile terminal, in which a grip posture of a user who holds the mobile terminal is recognized and a function corresponding to the recognized grip posture is executed.
2. Description of Related Art
Typically, when using a mobile terminal, a user selects a function such as making a phone call, or sending or receiving a text message, and inputs Korean characters, English characters and numbers using a plurality of buttons included in the mobile terminal.
Recent mobile terminals such as mobile phones have developed to combine the typical main functions of the mobile terminals, which include a phone call and a text message function, with another electronic machine functions. For instance, mobile phones now have various functions such as an MP3 file playing function of an MP3 player, an image recording and viewing function of a digital camera, a digital dictionary function, and a digital TV function.
An increase in functions of mobile terminals usually results in an increase in price, size and complexity, which is not desirable to users. Therefore, it is important to keep the device size as small as possible while maximizing the number of device functions.
Even when it is not difficult to add various functions to mobile terminals or miniaturize the devices for the mobile terminals with the development of technology, technical problems to be solved for providing a user interface that allows users to promptly and easily input complicated functions and control the terminal are increased. For example, a user interface that reduces key input steps necessary for performing a specific function, or easily managing, searching and playing a number of digital contents such as pictures, browsing images, music contents, e-mails, and the like is required.
For instance, to download the latest music ringtones by accessing the Internet wireless using a mobile phone, a user presses a wireless Internet access button, selects, for example, a My Phone Bell menu after accessing the wireless Internet, then selects a Ringtones menu which is a sub menu of the My Phone Bell menu, and finally selects the Latest Ringtones menu which is a sub menu of the Ringtones menu. In this case, the user needs to press buttons a total of four times.
In the case of a mobile terminal, an increase in the number of buttons for inputting a plurality of functions as described above may be impossible due to the limited size of the terminal, and can make a user input operation complicated. Moreover, when the number of buttons for key input is not increased, the number of key pressing times for selecting a specific function is increased.